This watchdog blog, by journalist Norman Oder, offers analysis, commentary, and reportage about the $4.9 billion project to build the Barclays Center arena and 16 high-rise buildings at a crucial site in Brooklyn. Dubbed Atlantic Yards by developer Forest City Ratner in 2003, it was rebranded Pacific Park Brooklyn in 2014 after the Chinese government-owned Greenland Group bought a 70% stake in 15 towers. New York State still calls it Atlantic Yards. Note: archive at right.

AY supporter Herbert announces for Senate against Montgomery

Atlantic Yards supporter Tony Herbert, a Democrat-turned-Republican who led a protest against Democratic Mayoral candidate Freddy Ferrer and shortly thereafter was crushed in his attempt to unseat City Council Member Letitia James, has become a Democrat again and announced his challenge to State Senator Velmanette Montgomery in the 2008 election. (Graphic from the Daily Politics, where Errol Louis broke the story and noted the announcement came unusually early, and some spirited--and mean-spirited--commentary ensued.)

Montgomery, a 22-year veteran, last year beat back shadowy challenge from former City Council Member Tracy Boyland, who played fast and loose with campaign finance regulations. Belated filings showed that Boyland outraised Montgomery and used the same political consulting firm as Forest City Ratner.

That doesn't mean that Herbert would be the "Ratner candidate," as Boyland was described by some opponents, but it does show that pro-Atlantic Yards sentiment can be a driving force for future challenges to Montgomery. The incumbent has created some vulnerability by apparently expressing interest in running for Borough President.

Herbert's claims

In an interview in yesterday's Black Star News, Herbert stated:The overall issue now is to use take this network that I have created and use those relationships to get corporate America engaged in our community and basically, take back exactly what we’re giving out -- support.

Why should we have to wait for government to say, “Okay, you only get this amount of discretionary money this year.” I’m not waiting for that. Why should we? Why are so many of our people happy to settle for a tiny slice when they can have the whole entire pie! Some of the elected officials today lead people to believe this is all they can get.

There’s a disparity with regards to what my opponent does. She gives a tiny bit of money to the people who don’t support her and lots of money to the people who do. Meanwhile, the people she’s giving astronomical amounts of money to, are the people that already have money. It has been documented that 85% of her discretionary moneys are distributed to the much better off portion of the district.

He wasn't asked for the documentation.

Atlantic Yards support

Herbert offered a classic defense of Atlantic Yards:Look, with regards to the Atlantic Yards Arena, which my opponent was against and tried to shut down and was unsuccessful. She was against the development because some of the better off constituents felt the sun would be blocking the neighborhood due to the height of the buildings. I don’t give a heck about how high they build a building, because the way I look at it, the sun was gone a long time ago when all these people started losing their jobs. There are a lot of minority contracts coming through that Atlantic Yards project. Forest City Ratner can build up to the 50th floor. That’s fine. All that means to me is there are 50 floors that a minority contractor from my community can get business from and put people to work.

This is a variant of an observation the late columnist Murray Kempton made a long time ago, quoted in Robert Caro's biography of Robert Moses, The Power Broker: "A construction worker would pave over his grandmother if the job paid $3.50 an hour." (And a lot of those minority and women contractors aren't exactly from Herbert's community.)

Montgomery's objections extend well beyond the height of buildings, of course. Despite his earlier mention of "the whole entire pie," Herbert's framing of the issue recalls some dialogue from August Wilson's play Radio Golf, in which a black character defends his decision to be part of a questionable business deal:I don't care if somebody else makes some money 'cause of a tax break. I get mine and they get theirs. I pull this off and next time I'm on the other side of the deal, sitting at the head of the table.

While that's part of the lawsuit, more prominent are claims of racial discrimination and retaliation, with black employees claiming repeated abuse by white supervisors, preferential treatment toward Hispanic colleagues, and retaliation in response to complaints.

Two individual supervisors, for example, are charged with referring to black employees as “black motherfucker,” “dumb black bitch,” “black monkey,” “piece of shit” and “nigger.”

Two have referred to an employee blind in one eye as “cyclops,” and “the one-eyed guy,” and an employee with a nose disorder as “the nose guy.”

There's been no official response yet though arena spokesman Barry Baum told the Daily News they, but take “allegations of this kind very seriously” and have "a zero tolerance policy for…

To supporters of Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project, it's a long-awaited plan for long-overlooked land. "The Atlantic Yards area has been available for any developer in America for over 100 years,” declared Borough President Marty Markowitz at a 5/26/05 City Council hearing.

Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, mused on 11/15/05 to WNYC's Brian Lehrer, “Isn’t it interesting that these railyards have sat for decades and decades and decades, and no one has done a thing about them.” Forest City Ratner spokesman Joe DePlasco, in a 12/19/04 New York Times article ("In a War of Words, One Has the Power to Wound") described the railyards as "an empty scar dividing the community."

But why exactly has the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Vanderbilt Yard never been developed? Do public officials have some responsibility?

At right is a photo of a poster spotted in Hasidic Williamsburg right. Clearly there's an event scheduled at the Barclays Center aimed at the Haredi Jewish community (strict Orthodox Jews who reject secular culture), but the lack of English text makes it cryptic.

The website Matzav.com explains, Protest Against Israeli Draft of Bnei Yeshiva Rescheduled for Barclays Center:
A large asifa to protest the drafting of bnei yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel into the Israeli army that had been set to take place this month will instead be held on Sunday, 17 Sivan/June 11, at the Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn, NY.
So attendees at a big gathering will protest an apparent change of policy that will make it much more difficult for traditional Orthodox Jewish students--both Hasidic (who follow a rebbe) and non-Hasidic (who don't)--to get deferments from the draft. Comments on the Yeshiva World website explain some of the debate.

First mentioned in April, the Atlantic Yards project in Atlanta is moving ahead--and has the potential to nudge Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn further down in Google searches.

According to a 5/30/17 press release, Hines and Invesco Real Estate Announce T3 West Midtown and Atlantic Yards:
Hines, the international real estate firm, and Invesco Real Estate, a global real estate investment manager, today announced a joint venture on behalf of one of Invesco Real Estate’s institutional clients to develop two progressive office projects in Atlanta totalling 700,000 square feet. T3 West Midtown will be a 200,000-square-foot heavy timber office development and Atlantic Yards will consist of 500,000 square feet of progressive office space in two buildings. Both projects are located on sites within Atlantic Station in the flourishing Midtown submarket.
Hines will work with Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture (HPA) as the design architect for both T3 West Midtown and Atlantic Yards. DLR Group will be t…

Pacific Park Brooklyn is seriously delayed, Forest City Realty Trust said yesterday in a news release, which further acknowledged that the project has caused a $300 million impairment, or write-down of the asset, as the expected revenues no longer exceed the carrying cost.

The Cleveland-based developer, parent of Brooklyn-based Forest City Ratner, which is a 30% investor in Pacific Park along with 70% partner/overseer Greenland USA, blamed the "significant impairment" on an oversupply of market-rate apartments, the uncertain fate of the 421-a tax break, and a continued increase in construction costs.

While the delay essentially confirms the obvious, given that two major buildings have not launched despite plans to do so, it raises significant questions about the future of the project, including:if market-rate construction is delayed, will the affordable h…

Real Estate Weekly, reporting on trends in Chinese investment in New York City, on 11/18/15 quoted Jim Costello, a senior vice president at research firm Real Capital Analytics:
“They’re typically building high-end condos, build it and sell it. Capital return is in a few years. That’s something that is ingrained in the companies that have been coming here because that’s how they’ve grown in the last 35 years. It’s always been a development game for them. So they’re just repeating their business model here,” he said.
When I read that last November, I didn't think it necessarily applied to Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, now 70% owned (outside of the Barclays Center and B2 modular apartment tower), by the Greenland Group, owned significantly by the Shanghai government.
A majority of the buildings will be rentals, some 100% market, some 100% affordable, and several--the last several built--are supposed to be 50% market/50% subsidized. (See tentative timetable below.)Selling development …

Click on graphic to enlarge. This is post-dated to stay at the top of the blog. It will be updated as announced configurations change and buildings launch. The August 2014 tentative configurations proposed by developer Greenland Forest City Partners will change, and the project is already well behind that tentative timetable.